I've had very little time to read so far this year (what with school, work, family, etc...), but I'm trying.

January: 

1. Endangered: Your Child in a Hostile World by Johann Christoph Arnold
2. Night  by ElieWiesel
3. Skipping-a-Beat by Sarah Pekkanen 

February:

1. Forgiveness Is a Choice by Robert D. Enright

How sad that I only read four books in two months. Anyway, my favorites were Night (a young boy's story of surviving the Holocaust) and Skipping a Beat (Story of high school sweethearts Mike and Julie (both from broken families) turned super millionaires. After he suffers a heart attack, Mike decides to give everything away and Julie has to decide if she loves him enough to stay).
I hate saying that Night was 'good', because it's a true story. I read it for a class and I am so glad I did. It really made me gain perspective on life and how mine is really not that bad. Skipping a beat was just soo good. I kind of knew what would happen at the end, but not to the point where it ruined the story.
Ok, I have loads of homework. Happy reading!

40-2012 Reflections

Ok, so I'm kind of late. Whatevs, here we go:

Favorite Makeup: I’m pretty simple when it comes to makeup (and everything else in life, really). Two things I used almost every day in 2012: Wet n’ Wild ‘Vanity’ palette and Mac Prolong Wear concealer.

 

 via temptalia.com

 

Favorite Book: I can’t choose just one and I’m actually planning to do a whole post on this. I’ll get to it eventually!

Favorite Song/Album: Christina Perri, Rilo Kiley, Jenni Rivera, and Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ (don’t judge me) were my jams this year. Just for fun, these were my 25 most played songs according to itunes:

Favorite Movie: I don’t watch a lot of movies, so I’ll do TV shows instead. My favorite show of 2012 was definitely Duck Dynasty (again, don’t judge me). I just love their family dynamic.

One thing you're grateful for: Besides the obvious (like my kids, my bf, my job, life, and health) I’m super grateful that I finally have a ‘real’ job. I’ve been a cashier for many years and that’s cool when you’re a teen/young adult, but after a while it’s just sad. My new job is not the most exciting thing and it’s not my dream, but I do like it and I am happy there. (Btw, I don’t mean to offend anyone that is a cashier. I know some people really do enjoy it, but I’m just not one of them).

Greatest Challenge: I’ve been in college since January 2008. I was supposed to graduate in May 2012, but it’s really hard trying to balance family, work, and school. So, graduation got pushed back to December 2012. My schedule was pretty easy: all electives and Statistics (the last core requirement). I was so excited about graduating and had excellent grades in all of my classes except (wait for it) Statistics. I failed miserably on the first few tests and knew there was no way I could pass the class. Instead of ignoring this fact, I dropped the class. Therefore, I did not graduate.:/ Accepting this was my greatest challenge of 2012. It sucked, but I know it was the best thing for me to do. 

 What are you looking forward to in 2013: Graduating (omg, finally!), grad school, family time, and reading new books.:)

39-Books I Read in November & December

So, this is pretty late. What can I say, life happens.

November

Stolen Innocence: Triumphing Over a Childhood Broken by Abuse: A Memoir by Erin Merryn
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry by Lenore Skenazy
Untamed (House of Night #4) by P.C. Kast and Kristin Kast

The book that stood out the most for November was Stolen Innocence. I found Erin Merryn's blog one day while doing research for an essay and I knew I had to read her books. There is really no way to rate this book. It is not a work of fiction and it feels plan wrong to take someone's personal story (especially on this topic) and give it a rating. What I can say is that Erin's story inspired me so much that I basically wrote a seven page paper on her story (and got an A).

I also really enjoyed Lenore Skenazy's book. For all you helicopter parents out there (yeah, myself included) you need this!

 
December

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman
Public and Private Families: An Introduction by Andrew J. Cherlin
Heavy Hands: An Introduction to the Crime of Intimate and Family Violence by Denise Kindschi Gosselin
Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas
The Madam by Julianna Baggott
Homeland and other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil

I read so many good books in December and I can't even choose one favorite. I guess the one's I'd recommend (out of all of them) are Smashed (memoir of a young woman's alcohol use), The Madam (about a woman whose husband practically abandons her so she opens a brothel to provide for her children, also partially based on a true story), and The Beach Street Knitting Society (totally chick lit, but so good. The characters are English and I could totes hear their accent while reading this, lol).

38-Mixtape (x-mas edition!)

 

:)

37-Books I read in September & October

I only read one book in September (sad, I know), so I am combining both months for this post. Here we go:

September

1. Marked (House of Night #1)-P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

October

1. Betrayed (House of Night #2)-P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast 
2. Chosen (House of Night #3)-P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast 
3. How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay-Julia Alvarez 
4. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia #1)-C.S. Lewis

I began reading The House of Night series years ago, but didn’t get very far. I found books 1-4 at Goodwill and had to buy them (10 books for $1, seriously). I love vampire stories and mythology and this series has plenty of both.

So, what is this book about? Zoey Redbird is a ‘regular’ 16 year old girl who gets marked to become a vampire. Once someone becomes marked, they have to live at the House of Night until they go through the change to become adult vampires. Zoey soon discovers that she is a special kind of fledgling and receives special gifts from the goddess Nyx. These gifts lead her to make friends, as well as enemies, and to take on a lot more challenges than she anticipated.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but feel that the other books were kind of slow (and a bit repetitive). That being this is an easy read and I will be on the lookout for the rest of them.

#3 and #4 are books that I read to my kids. #3 is the story of Miguel and Juanita, two siblings who, after their parent’s divorce, move to Vermont (from New York City). Their mother invites Tia Lola to visit (from the Dominican Republic) and her arrival causes Miguel to have a cultural identity crisis. In New York, there were many people like him, but Vermont is primarily Caucassian. He already feels like the odd ‘brown’ boy and his eccentric Tia Lola does not make matters easier. In the end, of course, Miguel comes to appreciate his aunt. I like that this book deals with real issues and I think it is a good way to introduce these topics to children.

The Chronicles of Narnia series is like required reading for children.  I read it as a child and wanted to share that with my kids. I’m happy to day that they enjoyed it.:) I don’t have much else to add about it. I’m pretty sure everyone knows what this series is about. If not, read it!